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The Magic of Examiner Reports

Victor Tan
 

Examiner Reports are released by Cambridge International after each examination session. These reports summarize the general performance of students, highlight common strengths and weaknesses, and provide constructive feedback for both students and teachers.

Put simply?

They’re awesome, and if you want to do well on the IGCSE, you should read them.

In this blog post, we will discuss the immense value of reading Examiner Reports for the IGCSE First Language English 0500 examination and how they provide invaluable insights into what examiners are looking for.

At the same time, they reflect the overall judgement of examiners for the essays of students for particular examination sessions and therefore provide key insights into the way that Cambridge as an organisation evaluates different scripts, which in turn can help you to better contextualise the marking criteria that has been provided in the mark scheme documents that you have no doubt seen so far.

“But Victor!!!” you might be saying…“I don’t want to spend my time reading dumb stuff like that!!!!”

Well hold on, hold on.

What if I told you that this ‘dumb stuff’… Was actually one of the master keys towards unlocking excellence on the IGCSE First Language English exam?

Unlocking the Marking Criteria

One of the difficulties of understanding how to do well in a language-based exam for students is that there are various ways to operationalize excellence in language. While it’s true that for other exams such as mathematics and science exams some degree of creativity and insight can lead to novel approaches and answers, it remains true that the possible sample space of excellent responses for First Language English and other exams is much wider, and it also remains true that it is more difficult for students to understand how to operationalize excellence through their work just from reading the marking criteria.

Here is where the \magic/ 🪄 of examiner reports comes in!

Examiner reports are absolutely invaluable in helping you to unlock the marking criteria for the IGCSE First Language English exam, because they offer comprehensive and actionable steps for you if you’re practicing for the exam, and they serve as a wonderful practice aid for you to check whether you are able to do well in particular practice exams.

Let’s look at the first part of the examiner report for the June 2022 IGCSE.

0500_s22_erDownload

Observe here that there are key messages for each paper, and also general comments about what constituted excellence for the paper. We won’t discuss the entire thing, but there are also specific analyses on a question-by-question basis.

I won’t go into everything here today (more resources will be provided to our Premium members soon).

Here’s one sample:

…And here’s the next:

Wow.

As you can see, the report specifically breaks down these questions.

Think about that and the value that it’s offering – in the first case, it is telling you exactly how the best candidates did question 2d) and how they came to deliver responses on Writer’s Effect.

In the second example, it is literally breaking down Question 3 for you by telling you the ways in which the candidates approached the question and the way that people thought about the question, which you can in turn reference as you write your own exam responses; you could implement a routine of practicing a past paper, following that up by having your essay graded (submissions for essays to our essay bank(s) are open!)

To sum up, why are examiner reports valuable to you?

(sorry to be annoying, but you’ll have to sign up for a free or premium membership to read the next bit c: – reminder that purchasing the book gains you access to premium member privileges… For now!)

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Conclusion

I hope I’ve shown you that Examiner Reports for the IGCSE First Language English 0500 examination are a powerful tool for students seeking to understand what examiners are looking for in the context of the marking criteria, and also that they are something valuable to look at in your quest for mastery or for convergence towards writing stellar essays that fit the marking criteria while at the same time helping you to excel.

By analyzing these reports, students can gain invaluable insights into the expectations of examiners, avoid common pitfalls, learn from real examples, and fine-tune their writing techniques to achieve the highest possible marks.

As the saying goes, knowledge is power, and in the case of the IGCSE First Language English 0500 examination, Examiner Reports are a key to unlocking that power – they are not the only key, but are definitely something that you should consider as part of your repertoire!

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IGCSE English Writing tips

Writer’s Effect for IGCSE First Language English: A Guide

Victor Tan
 

In today’s post, I thought to write about something that many of you been requesting for: A guide on Writer’s Effect. (note: We’ve just released The Complete Guide to Writer’s Effect, and we hope you’ll enjoy it!)

I started to think about doing this ever since I had performed a poll on the IGCSE Malaysia Facebook group, and this happened:

A rather dramatic result, at that!

All right, I hear you!

Let’s get into it!

Writer’s Effect questions appear in Paper 1 of the IGCSE first language English exam. Here’s an example from Variant 1 of Summer 2021. You may seek out the paper (look for 0500_s21_qp_11 and 0500_s21_in_11 and look for text B on pastpapers.co and follow along if you wish) 🙂

Generally, these questions are often phrased in the same way.

They ask you to highlight three key words or phrases that can be found in the texts that you will be reading for the exam, and to point out how the writer uses those words or phrases achieve specific effects upon the reader.

The key word here is how. More on this later.

Sounds easy? 

Well, many students struggle with this.

As they write, they overemphasise the content of the pieces that they are generating and prefer to write about the content inside the passages that they are reading rather than doing what they are supposed to actually do, which is actually to talk about language.

Let me give you an example from a recent student essay that I marked. 

“In paragraph 18, the writer begins with the phrase “wails” to create a sense of drama and exaggeration, which highlights Vivian’s discomfort with her surroundings. The writer then continues with the phrase “plucked out of her comfort zone.” This metaphor is used to emphasise Vivian’s transition of city life to cycle touring. The phrase also suggests that Vivian was unprepared for the challenges of the trip.”

In this case, as with many other cases of student work, the student focused not on language but instead made a relatively weak statement about the content of the passage that is pretty obvious to anyone who reads it.

Here’s my feedback and improvement on this:

Now, here’s my commentary:

(Oh, but before that, I’m sorry to burst your bubble if you’re a non-member, but to read this you’re going to have to sign up for a free membership – don’t worry, it will only take a minute!)

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Now, a bit of guidance for our Premium Members, containing a format I recommend for your Writer’s Effect:

We hope that you found this incredibly useful, and that it will help you on your journey to being able to break down Writer’s Effect, and to consistently do well in this section of the exam – good luck, make sure to keep practicing, and here is to your success!

V.

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Assessment Exam tips IGCSE English Motivation Writing tips

The Power of Intelligent Practice

Victor Tan
 

I doubt that you are lazy, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this.

Come on. Even if your parents forced you to be here, or if you are a parent and you really don’t want to be here, there is a part of you that understands very clearly that there is something lacking about what you are doing and you want to improve it.

However, that does not mean that you are good at practice.

In fact, chances are you are here after having done past year paper after past year paper or written exam script after exam script, only to realize that your scores are not improving.

To that I say, well…

Not all practice is created equal.

Practicing to get better at first language English is not a matter of just doing essays over and over again.

It is also about spending that time isolating the specific things that would help you get better and then actually training those things.

Let’s now talk about how to practice intelligently.

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All of these were just suggestions on how you can get better at practicing, but do not think of them as dogma. Each of you readers has a different mind and a different approach to things, and at the end of the day, whatever practice method you choose has to work for you specifically. However, I think that some things here remain absolutely true:

In order for you to get a sense of how to improve, you first have to know where you stand, and you do need to know where you want to go.

Beyond that, a lot of things are negotiable, and how and whether you improve are up to you – What’s for sure, though, is that intentionally choosing to look for better methods and seeking out intelligent ways of improving in a way that suits you will far outperform just blindly going into the preparation process hoping and praying that writing a few essays is going to magically make you into one of the greatest writers on the planet.

With that in mind, do you have a strategy or do you have a plan in mind for improving your writing this year and leading up to the exams? Let me know down in the comments!

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